UCD roundup: Aggie men smash two straight opponents

PORTLAND — At the halfway point of a four-day, four-match road trip, the UC Davis men’s tennis team still hasn’t lost a match.

One day after beating George Fox, 9-0, the Aggies swept Seattle, 7-0, at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Portland on Saturday.

After dropping just one set in the entire match on Friday, UCD (3-2) lost only three sets against the Redhawks (0-8).

Doubles wins by Toki Sherbakov/Adam Levie and Kyle Miller/Alec Haley earned the first point of Saturday’s match for the Aggies, with the third match being halted once UCD took the 1-0 lead.

In the round of singles, Brett Bacharach, Haley and Hugo Verdi-Fortin each dispatched their respective opponents in a straight sets.

And even though the Aggies’ top three players were each pushed to three sets, they all stepped up when it counted the most as Sherbakov, Miller and Parker Kelley recorded victories.

On Friday, while facing George Fox at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton, Ore., Haley, George Horowitz and Mitch Thorp each won their first singles matches of the season.

Miller also secured his first doubles victory of the year, partnering with Haley, as the Aggies swept the three contests to help UCD jump out to an early 3-0 lead.

Unlike matches normally contested under Division I rules where two victories out of the three contested are needed to secure the one doubles point up for grabs, each doubles match counted as one point against the Bruins.

Then, needing only two singles wins to clinch the match, the Aggies took all six to complete their sweep. In addition to Haley, Horowitz and Thorp, Miller, Sherbakov and Bacharach also cruised to singles victories.

UCD returns to the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center on Sunday to face Portland at 10 a.m.

UCD women’s water polo

The No. 12 Aggies dropped a pair of matches to ranked teams over the weekend, then fell in an exhibition contest to the Olympic Club on Saturday.

Earlier that day, seniors Carmen Eggert and Jessica Dunn each scored two goals but UCD was unable to fully recover from a 3-0 first-quarter deficit in a 7-6 loss to eighth-ranked San Jose State at the Stanford Invitational. The Aggies then lost the exhibition match, 8-6, to a club team that features Cardinal alums, including Davis High graduate Kris Koblik.

The action came one day after No. 14 Indiana topped UCD, 9-8, at Schaal Aquatics Center.

On Saturday, Erin Schlueter and Hannah Curran also tallied a goal each for UCD (1-2) against San Jose State. Curran and senior Kathryn Bailey led the Aggies with two goals apiece in the loss to the Olympic Club, while Eggert and sophomore Keelia Houston, a DHS graduate, each added one.

Koblik, who played for UCD head coach Jamey Wright on the Davis WPC, led the winged O with a hat trick.

In Friday’s match, Dunn had a hat trick and senior goalkeeper Riane Woods added 15 saves, but Indiana scored the go-ahead goal with 2:47 remaining.

UCD got one tally each from Curran, Bailey, Eggert, Houston and Elsie Fullerton, another former Blue Devil.

Up next, the Aggies take on the top-ranked host Cardinal at 8 a.m. Sunday, then wrap up the weekend with a placing game against one of the “B” bracket teams.

UCD gymnastics

Junior Anna Shumaker posted individual wins in the vault and the all-around to help the Aggies hit season bests on both vault and balance beam in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation dual victory over Seattle Pacific at The Pavilion on Friday.

UCD (6-5) scored a season-high 194.125 to the Falcons’ 191.450.

Shumaker scored 9.850 on vault, leading a 1-5 Aggie sweep in the opening rotation, on her way to a 38.850 in the all-around. She outpaced SPU’s Shannon Escarra’s and teammate Katie Yamamura, who took third with a 38.300 score. Shumaker added a 9.525 on bars, anchored the beam lineup with a 9.725, then finished with a 9.750 on the floor.

UCD also won the other three events, including the uneven bars, where sophomore Lisa Wiktorski posted a personal record of 9.775 to edge teammate Michelle Ho’s 9.750. Yamamura went 9.775 on beam, slightly ahead of freshman teammate Stephanie Stamates’ 9.750, before Stamates, in turn, scored a 9.850 on floor to lead an Aggie top-five sweep in the final rotation.

Sophomores Tiana Montell (9.800) and Kala DeFrancesco (9.725) each posted personal bests on vault.

UCD returns to action in a quad meet at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, Feb. 10. Washington and Causeway Classic rival Sacramento State round out the field for that showdown.